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Message from The Minister of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade of Jamaica

Welcome to the Caribbean Action 2030: Online Platform! a valuable outcome of the Caribbean Action 2030: Regional Conference on the Sustainable Development Goals, held in June 2017. I extend sincere appreciation to my CARICOM colleagues and to our partners, the University of the West Indies and the United Nations Development Programme, for their collaboration in creating this important regional space, in which we can, collectively and more closely, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the SDGs. I also wish to express our gratitude to the developers, Gio Design Studio, for their professionalism and hard work in making this initiative a reality...read more

Welcome to Caribbean Action 2030 Online Platform

By Douglas Mcintosh Source: http://jis.gov.jm/pm-says-govt-committed-un-sustainable-development-goals/ Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Government is committed to fulfilling the targets under the United Nations (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework.He says the Administration takes the SDGs “very seriously”, noting that they are aligned with priorities and projected outcomes under the long-term Vision 2030 Jamaica National Development Plan.Against this background, the Prime Minister has endorsed the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s (PIOJ’s) SDG public education campaign, which he officially launched at the University of the West Indies (UWI) regional headquarters in Mona, St. Andrew, on Tuesday, December 5.Mr. Holness said SDGs represent a “very powerful and comprehensive” framework for capturing what...

Health is fundamental to human development. All people, regardless of social status, consistently rank good health as a top priority,1 and healthy people are critical to sustaining societies. It is therefore not surprising that four of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) directly relate to health.2The MDGs were successful at focusing global attention and resources on specific, pressing world challenges, including hunger, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS and malaria. These issues were placed at the top of the global agenda, inviting international agencies, Governments, non-governmental organizations and civil society, private firms, and other stakeholders to come together in order to achieve the goals. As a result, extreme poverty fell by half, there has been significant progress in the fight against malaria and tuberculosis, and over 2 billion people gained access to safer drinking water.Nonetheless, as with many other global targets, alongside strengths and successes...

Scheduling the launch of the post-2015 development agenda for September 2015 provides us with the time necessary to undertake consultations and discuss what exact goals are needed to maximize progress. While the MDGs started from ground zero, creating a baseline for global hunger and poverty targets, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) will hit the ground running, propelled by over a decade of lessons learned. Given this experience, the coming years offer unprecedented potential for human development.With respect to nutrition, the current discourse and action are informed by a number of strategies and approaches which evolved over the course of the MDGs. Nutrition has captured global attention and has remained a featured agenda item for most development partners. A number of international initiatives, multi-stakeholder processes and commitments add fuel to the fire, including the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement (2009), the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact (2013), the United...

Access to clean, safe and secure water resources is an essential prerequisite for communities to prosper. While access to water and sanitation is often taken for granted in developed countries, this basic right is denied to many across the globe every day.Sustainable development goal (SDG) 6, as formulated by the United Nations Open Working Group, presents an ambitious, yet achievable mission for the next two decades: “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” We propose that this goal can be achieved by applying four principles: 1) Separating drinking water from wastewater; 2) Accessing and treating drinking water to remove chemical and biological contaminants; 3) Protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems; and 4) Guaranteeing water access and water rights.1. Separating drinking water from wastewaterHistorically, the single biggest factor contributing to the increased longevity of humans was the separation of drinking water from...

In September 2015, Heads of State will convene at the General Assembly of the United Nations to agree upon a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs). The first target of the first SDG proposed by the Open Working Group (OWG) of Member States is to “eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere” by 2030. The second target is to reduce at least by half the proportion of people living in poverty according to national definitions. These are noble and historic targets for global progress—they deserve their status at the top of the list. At the same time, they illustrate issues affecting a considerable number of the 169 development targets proposed by OWG, such as how do we measure them and are they plausible?These two questions are linked. How we resolve the challenges of measurement will have a profound impact on the targets’ power to motivate as well as on the likelihood that those targets will be met. Poverty lines at the national and local level are frequently revised...